@Philophile: I'll leave you to your imagination, since the reality is so much more mundane.

Now that you mention it, though, the symbolism of feeding vegetarians to lions is even better, at least for those who enjoy irony.

@Old Crow, @Hunter78: The reason Christianity took off is because they threw the best parties. My how the great have fallen.

I'm a vegetarian and I do not lecture or look down on those who are not. The other veggies I know also tire of the assumption that so many have about how we're all hateful and want to convert everyone. My choice not to eat meat does not make me comparable to a religious zealot, a homophobe or a murderous dictator. It has baffled and annoyed me for over 20 years to experience this "I've got vegetarians all figured out" attitude from some meat eaters. When I find out a person does not drink alcohol, I don't assume they must hate people who drink, think they are morally superior, and are a threat to me. If a non-drinker copped that attitude with me, I would take it as THEIR bullshit, not proof that all non-drinkers acted and felt the exact same way.

And for the record, I hate Morrissey.

@106: Yes. What do you think they were going to put in writing? "Dear property owner, we'd really like permission to come onto your land and talk to your slaves. The reason is to inspire them to run away or revolt"?

Rome in the 1st and 2nd Centuries was not like the northern US in the 1850's, where slavery was a controversial issue that people could talk about without fear of the police arresting them (or worse) for their opinions. In Rome, slavery was ubiquitous: a huge business that everyone with political clout was involved with to some degree; which, as far as anyone knew, had always existed everywhere since the dawn of time; and which you had to have a pretty good imagination to even think it might someday not be ubiquitous or that slaves might someday be entitled to conditions that weren't horrendous.

If you were for slavery, you didn't have to say that, and you didn't bother, any more than people today bother to say that they think that heterosexuals should have the right to get married or that they think it's wrong to commit grand theft. The fact that the people who wrote your quotes felt that they needed to explicitly state that they were teaching slaves to be obedient, like the vegetarians on this thread who feel they have to explicitly state that they don't look down on meat eaters, tells me that other people thought that what they were claiming was in doubt.

Mr. Savage,

Why is the term LUGgage funny? Is it tongue-in-cheek due to the fact we all know that LUG is an offensive bisexual stereotype? Or is it funny because its cute that girls experiment with girls in college, but that they will ultimately decide that heteronormativity is the way to go because being bisexual is only a phase? More often than not I think that you are a pioneer when it comes sexual self-actualization, but statements like that make you sound like you are really a chauvinistic bro in queer clothing.

Seandr, another way Christianity became successful was by stealing all the pagan holidays, like the one coming up in a few days. People were putting up trees and giving gifts long before Jayzus was born.

Old Crow, thanks for explaining how the moral will of the creator of the universe is secondary to political considerations. It must be very interesting in your head.

@The Zoo: When I find out a person does not drink alcohol, I don't assume they must hate people who drink, think they are morally superior, and are a threat to me.

Your generous attitude is to be admired, but when the t-totallers barge through your door in the middle of the night and drag you and your family away to their sobriety concentration camps, don't say I didn't warn you.

@ Old Crow - Sources, plzkthx.

Is that you, Hunter? Like, with all this Bible knowledge? Wow.
And Merry Christman to you, sweet pea.

Of course I could wish for you to find a merry Christ man- if that's what you'd like, Hunter. I was meaning, though. Merry Christmas.

Ms Kitty - Your post just missed me the last time I was here. On the religious front, I suspect there could be a split between anti-gay prejudice in general and Matrimony as a Sacrament, the latter of which has a limited amount of give. I can go along with the idea of having rid the structure of a lot of extraneous prejudices.

If prevention doesn't really need the cause, that just makes it even more frightening. But it's not really the scientist or the sociologist I distrust - alone. It's when the two combine.

You mentioned the larger suprachiasmatic nucleus last week, and in part I wondered whether the discovery didn't immediately set a lot of people to trying to see if it could be shrunk or prevented from outgrowing the smaller size, and if either would help the cause. In another way, though, the study seemed to me to be comparing apples and Pokemon. The set of people whom I'd trust to study, measure and draw conclusions about suprachiasmatic nuclei does not overlap with the set of people I'd trust to take two groups of subjects and label group A "heterosexual men" and Group B "homosexual men", especially with no other groups.

As for your final paragraph, I respect your scientific curiosity, but bear in mind that I am not a trained expert, but merely recount my own observations drawn in a specific locality during a particular time. Some people call themselves tops or bottoms quite accurately; some are rounding; some don't know they're rounding. Some think, "But I'm a Top!" (or "But I'm a Bottom!") gets them out of Oral Comes Standard or some other activity for which they'd have to be GGG. Whether some who think this round themselves up to Top deliberately in accordance (or down to Bottom for the converse) is open to interpretation.

In my experience, the designation of "total" top is one I'm not sure I recall ever hearing claimed, but "total" bottom I have come across more than once. As was the case with the questioner when he showed up, THEY KNOW. (By the way, try not to read my posts too scientifically - my version of knowledge is probably closer to Miss Marple's solving murders by analogy than to your scientific method.) As for constructed roles, the rigid ones particularly play into a peculiarly same-sexer set of mind that What We Do, We Become (which sounds like a Judybats lyric - only that was What We Lose). I feel I have not done this justice, as it is not really my turn of mind, but you can take Mr Merrick's Charlie/Peter trilogy for an example.

Sure @101, it's wacky to be 50 and to be on husband number two? Yep, clearly I'm just burnin' through 'em willy nilly.

@seandr:
"Vegetarianism is a belief system"
"Vegetarians believe eating meat is wrong"
"Vegetarianism entails an implicit (and sometimes explicit) statement of moral superiority"

Yep, no blanket statements there; I can't imagine why you'd be accused of making absolute generalizations! Why, look at all the times you said "sometimes"! And all the humorous anecdotes! Poor misunderstood you.

Boything's Girl: You're referring back to my posts?? No fair!!

Seandr: Your biases are insurmountable by truth, logic, or experience. Shame. Guess all the vegetarian women in the world are crossed off your list of potential partners. They've dodged a bullet I'd say!

I have many friends who are in relationships where one person is a vegetarian and the other is not. They don't seem to have any problems. No one agrees to keep a meat-free home, because that is insane advice. Sometimes they eat vegetarian meals together and sometimes they eat separately. It's only a big deal if someone decides to make it that way.

SeanDr, I hear they got some fancy shovels on special for Xmas.
They got them
Mirror on the handle, too, if youse wanna hang around admiring anything..
HaHaHaHaHa. Oh Honey, you knows I'm just playing with youse.
Have a great Christmas ..

Oh Hunter.. Eggplant is yummy. Especially cooked on hot plate. And Tufu, if you infuse it with Tamari , cook in oven for a short while, cut into slices.. Then place it on some steamed vegetables and rice.
With some Tahini as a sauce( mix with a little boiling water, a little Tamari and lemon juice, to make a light paste).. And after you feel full and light.
I'll cook it for you, when you come visit.

Not true about the glass dildo. I had a quality glass anal toy that dropped from the bed (okay, maybe it was flung - my play gets pretty rough). It definitely shattered.

Of course, that Tofu.
Hope you're going ok, Dirtclustit. Writing your poetry.
And Ophian, keep cosy over the holidays.

@BiDanFan: Guess all the vegetarian women in the world are crossed off your list of potential partners.

Republicans, religious people, grammar nazis, soup nazis, Nazis, Guamanians, asexuals, crew rowers, anarchists, monarchists, men, Gabby S. Weinstein, my siblings, people who's first name is really a last name, and those who ride their bikes with the headlight set to strobe are all crossed off my list.

But I'd totally date a vegetarian, assuming she could tolerate a little bit of teasing.

Dr Sean - But I thought Blair Warner was just your type!

@ven: She's tempting. (Those eyes look like they're well acquainted with the facts of life). Maybe if she didn't speak?

@Hunter78: Pass, even if her name was Swift Taylor. Perfection bores me.

Dr Sean - I'll avoid a lyrical reference and agree. I was in someone else's car a while back and heard her giving a bizarre interview on Christian radio - though you'd probably like that she's extremely pro-spanking.

As for non-meat eaters, I was surprised there were multiple vegetarians to each of a very small number of vegans; lately I've encountered quite a lot of vegans and not that many vegetarians.

It reminds me of Shirley Valentine being asked by her neighbour Gillian to feed Gillian's bloodhound his muesli that evening. When asked if Claymore doesn't get meat, Gillian replied something like, "Didn't you know; we've been vegan for years?" "No! I thought you were still C of E." I'd estimate that between a third and half the vegans I tend to encounter make that joke slightly more apt than it might be.

So Hunter, you ain't fussed with my dinner invite? Of course it's a ways in your row boat..
I'll just send you my love instead.

Fuck your biphobia, Dan. Bigotry isn't cute just because you're making it short and punchy.

OK, I had just managed to convince my friend you weren't biphobic anymore. Attraction to different genders fluctuates over time a lot in bisexuality. It doesn't mean you weren't really bisexual, especially if it was for 3 years.